Re: [asa] Who's to blame for the lost ones?

It has been a long time since I posted anything here so I thought I
would say hi to all my friends and re-introduce myself for those who
don't know me. I am a Mechanical Engineering Professor at Ohio State
University. I first came into the debate about origins about 15 years
ago decidedly on the side of ID. I changed my position after a couple
of years due mainly to two factors (1) greater familiarity with the
evidence (2) TE has greater appeal to me theologically. BTW, I still
consider myself to be a conservative Southern Baptist, though I
suspect many by that name would not claim me ;-).

At 08:11 PM 6/4/2008, Dehler, Bernie wrote:
>Imagine this, you hear a report at church that 10 kids accepted Christ
>in the 3rd grade Sunday School. Everyone claps.
>
>Fast forward 10 years, and you hear that the kid who entered college
>just left the faith because they now believe in evolution.
>
>Who's to blame, the evolutionist who is teaching the lie of evolution,
>or the church who says that evolution is a lie?

I think you missed other possibilities for blame, i.e. the young
person themselves, their parents, etc.

That aside, the primary blame would go to anyone who distorts the
Gospel of Christ by adding conditions to salvation. To anyone even
suggesting that what one believes about evolution has anything
whatever to do with salvation. People holding this view should read
Galatians carefully and take note.

>If it is the church's fault, then a group like Ken Ham's AiG who claims
>to be doing "Creation Evangelism" is actually doing a form of
>"anti-evangelization" by destroying the faith of those who learn the
>truth of modern science. It is ironic that they think they are on the
>"cutting edge of evangelism" while they may be actually destroying the
>faith, by insisting that their theology must be received and modern
>science rejected in order to be a real Christian.
>
>This origins debate is so important, yet most churches don't talk about
>it because it is "too controversial." Maybe we should be more concerned
>with the truth and 'quality' instead of 'quantity,' afraid to upset the
>apple cart.
>
>I'm thinking more about this because I'm offering to teach a class at
>church, and am anticipating the push-back... I think there is a faction
>that wants to keep everyone in slumber.
>
>
>To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
>"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Thu Jun 5 09:22:54 2008